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By Digital News Asia March 16, 2020

Graduation ceremony, due to take place 5 April, postponed until further notice

Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU) is suspending all face-to-face lectures, tutorials, presentations and classes that are taking place in its campus from today, 16th March 2020, until further notice.

The decision is made as part of the university’s initiatives to move away from the face-to-face teaching to reduce the risk of the spread of the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) and to support the notion of social distancing.

Students and lecturers are set to interact online through APU’s Online Digital Learning platform, which will be rolled out beginning Wednesday, 18th March 2020.

Gurpardeep Singh, APU’s chief operating officer explains that the platform has been evolving over 20 years. “APU has been using digital platforms to supplement conventional learning for almost 20 years. It has evolved from what was initially purely an online courseware repository to an integrated suite of solutions covering all aspects of teaching, learning and assessments,” he says.

The platform today is part of its Digital Trasformation Strategies, “which we embarked on in 2016 when planning for our move into the new campus,” he says.

Today, that Digital Learning Platform includes tools for digital collaboration and communication using Microsoft Teams wrapped around an E-Learning platform using APU’s own customised version of Moodle that allows for provision of module material, discussion forums as well as online submission and marking of assessments.

This is integrated within its own internally developed APSpace mobile app that provides a broad range of tools and facilities that support the student experience.

“Of course performance and availability is of paramount importance, and it is a Cloud platform which enables APU to scale up whenever required and also provides access on any device, anywhere and at anytime.

Non-academic services including administrative functions at APU will function as normal while examinations will continue to take place as scheduled, says the university which did not reveal is any of its students or staff have come down with Covid-19.

In its previous health advisories, APU has already imposed travel and arrival restrictions to/from affected regions: China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Korea, Japan, Italy & Iran. Comprehensive cleaning and sanitization of all learning and social spaces and offices on campus with increased intensity and frequency are also taking place.

In addition, all social events and sporting activities have been postponed until further notice. APU’s Graduation Ceremony, which was scheduled to take place on Sunday, 5 April has also been postponed until further notice.

“APU has been fully in compliance with directives provided by the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education & Ministry of Higher Education. We have implemented proactive measures to safeguard the community. We do fully realize that this is a stressfull time for all our students, their parents and all staff of APU. We hope the APU community will all cope with this difficult situation in a calm and mutually supportive way,” the University said in its circular.